I rarely see white flashes anymore, the only time I do is when I'm really moving quickly and especially when rapidly increasing or decreasing altitude. so yea, I still notice them every now and then, but tend to ignore them.

Hey all!
really nice to see some successful vids out there.
I've clocked up 200+ hours on the S800 now and have been getting more and more comfortable with its handling. I have also been pushing its limits weather wise and have flown successfully many combinations of -25 degrees Celsius, light and quite moderate snow and up to 10m/s wind. Even flown behind it on a snowmobile to test its speed limits... its been good fun! haha (video coming soon!)
Here is a vid from one of the latest events we filmed.
Would be great for some feedback!

Hey all!
really nice to see some successful vids out there.
I've clocked up 200+ hours on the S800 now and have been getting more and more comfortable with its handling. I have also been pushing its limits weather wise and have flown successfully many combinations of -25 degrees Celsius, light and quite moderate snow and up to 10m/s wind. Even flown behind it on a snowmobile to test its speed limits... its been good fun! haha (video coming soon!)
Here is a vid from one of the latest events we filmed.
Would be great for some feedback!

I have to replace 2 arms I cracked landing hard. I was stupid, I switched to manual close to the ground and at 50% throttle the 800 drops like a rock in Manual. Only switch to manual before takeoff or with lots of altitude and be ready to throttle up. This was on my third flight with the 800. Boy did I feel stupid. I repaired the arms temporarily and they fly fine but I want to replace them, I have flown the repaired arms at least a dozen times now and I just got the replacements. I used superglue, 2mm screws and Plast-Aid to effect the repair.

I got the new arms but it is strange the way the wires are just bare copper. I have not cut them yet. But just doing a continuity test on them on one side the thin and thick wire are shorted. This can't be normal.

Maybe once I cut them short I can separate them more. This just seems strange. There seems to only be a bit of varnish on the wires, and I assume they are separated inside the moulded plastic arms.

Can someone who has replaced these parts give me some tips. Like the best way to remove the plastic insulation on the entire ESC. And the way the wires have to cross over each other seems strange. Is this just to allow more vertical separation and longer wires to make soldering easy. I have a hot air solder gun I use on delicate soldering, is this the way to go?

Files

The two wires are connected yes. That is normal This is the negative from the battery and ESC. The other thick wire is the positive and the thin is the PWM.

Cut the wires at the desired length, the perfect length to the solder pads on the ESC. To remove the insulating varnish, use an aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), just lay the wire on the aspirin, and put on the solder iron. Use a heavy solder iron, and just heat short, as short as needed to become a good connection.

The insulating from the ESC, leave as much as possible. Just remove with f.i. a dremel brush the pads which need to be (de)soldered.

Good luck!

Quote:

Originally Posted by westsideav

I have to replace 2 arms I cracked landing hard. I was stupid, I switched to manual close to the ground and at 50% throttle the 800 drops like a rock in Manual. Only switch to manual before takeoff or with lots of altitude and be ready to throttle up. This was on my third flight with the 800. Boy did I feel stupid. I repaired the arms temporarily and they fly fine but I want to replace them, I have flown the repaired arms at least a dozen times now and I just got the replacements. I used superglue, 2mm screws and Plast-Aid to effect the repair.

I got the new arms but it is strange the way the wires are just bare copper. I have not cut them yet. But just doing a continuity test on them on one side the thin and thick wire are shorted. This can't be normal.

Maybe once I cut them short I can separate them more. This just seems strange. There seems to only be a bit of varnish on the wires, and I assume they are separated inside the moulded plastic arms.

Can someone who has replaced these parts give me some tips. Like the best way to remove the plastic insulation on the entire ESC. And the way the wires have to cross over each other seems strange. Is this just to allow more vertical separation and longer wires to make soldering easy. I have a hot air solder gun I use on delicate soldering, is this the way to go?

Hey all!
really nice to see some successful vids out there.
I've clocked up 200+ hours on the S800 now and have been getting more and more comfortable with its handling. I have also been pushing its limits weather wise and have flown successfully many combinations of -25 degrees Celsius, light and quite moderate snow and up to 10m/s wind. Even flown behind it on a snowmobile to test its speed limits... its been good fun! haha (video coming soon!)
Here is a vid from one of the latest events we filmed.
Would be great for some feedback!

Looks like you did everything right and I approve flying over people, as long as everyone is aware of you flying " which they clearly are" I don't see an issue.

Now saying that, Not everyone should fly over people, some don't have the skill required to fly near anything but possibly a tree. Not a put down, just the facts. I fly near people, and over some expensive rides all the time.

My criteria is simple, can you fly flawless in Manual? Nose in? If not then don't attempt any type of flying near people or property.

Ok, so I test flew with the Secraft anti vibe mod but like I said I never had vibes with the Zenmuse anyway...
I still get white flashes and with the stiffer arms it seems I actually need to lower the WKM gains. Otherwise I do not notice any difference... Maybe if I had problems to start with it would be a different story, but I still like the fact that I got rid of the crazy arm flex...

gt
thanks for sharing, green grass, wow I must move to vancouver. I suppose the only down side is the weight, I am guessing around 180g??. My s800 vibrates a lot makes using a go pro or anything other than a z15 unusable, I can't see any down side to this mod other than weight.

Looks like you did everything right and I approve flying over people, as long as everyone is aware of you flying " which they clearly are" I don't see an issue.

Now saying that, Not everyone should fly over people, some don't have the skill required to fly near anything but possibly a tree. Not a put down, just the facts. I fly near people, and over some expensive rides all the time.

My criteria is simple, can you fly flawless in Manual? Nose in? If not then don't attempt any type of flying near people or property.

Once again great job on the video!

Perhaps not the right place to discuss this but it's always interesting to hear peoples opinions about flying over people, since in the US you don't have a legal way to do this yet, just some information from Canada where we do, you would need permission to fly over any people (who would have to actively involved in the shoot, not bystanders) or property, and any lawyer will tell you that will mean signed permission, it's not easy but otherwise the liability is with you, and your insurance won't cover you with out proof of permission.
Trust me when the US gets a legal way of flying, it's going to be a field day for the lawyers!.

Perhaps not the right place to discuss this but it's always interesting to hear peoples opinions about flying over people, since in the US you don't have a legal way to do this yet, just some information from Canada where we do, you would need permission to fly over any people (who would have to actively involved in the shoot, not bystanders) or property, and any lawyer will tell you that will mean signed permission, it's not easy but otherwise the liability is with you, and your insurance won't cover you with out proof of permission.
Trust me when the US gets a legal way of flying, it's going to be a field day for the lawyers!.

It has been discussed to death within the UAV Flight School, and when I say "over people", I should have included near people, right on the edge, obviously you need spotter pilots, a ditch site, permissions go with out saying, be responsible, flying a RC multi over or near a crowd is FAR LESS dangerous than hovering over that same crowd with a Full scale Heli. So all things being equal, its up to the situation, each is different and has unique properties. How much control and freedom you have with a multi is how some really artistic shots are done.

My S800 is FINELY COMING INTO ITS OWN! I just flew my 300th flight in Cali, and it was totally killer,real fast fwd flight and even harder descend's, i would like to see anyone fly their s800 harder than me the guys were blown away by the looks and hard flying.

So I am reporting my DJI S800 is Near Perfect! and I really have a sense of being at one with it. I just have to think it to a location and it goes, pretty good feeling!

Vibes are tamed and a thing of the past, Carbon Arms, APC props, everything CG'd, Balanced, Gimbal doing good, my Video down link is now the weakest part of this Hexa, and That My friends is a good thing!

I just bought another full set of arms, will play with SeCraft bolt ons next, and possibly step up to the Zen...Seeing too many killer smooth vids and it was always my reason for buying this in the first place!

now i would like to get some information about the minus degrees
how did you handle that?
as by the manual, it is not possible to go below -5°C ...
would be awesome to get some insides!!!

Of course in these conditions, you don't even want to be outside personally let alone be working and filming but coming from Finland, unfortunately most of the winter is below -5°C, so basically it was to just push the limits, in a safe controlled environment of course. We had some very interesting results, so ill share a few in case more are interested.

The main issue was actually the battery life, not only the LiPo's but also the TX batteries and the NEX battery. Firstly, in these conditions you obviously want to keep everything relatively warm as long as you can, so basically when not airborne, the S800 along with all equipment and batteries sit in the van with the heater on. We also carry a couple sets of batteries in our jackets to keep to body warmth.
I run 2x 5000mah and on Graupner 14x8 props. with this combo I lost about 2 minutes of my average flight time, so a total of 8-9 min depending on aerial manoeuvres and wind speed. The NEX battery would die every 10-15min, where we would swap it out for a new one and warm up the old one. Once warm again, it would still have 80% of its original charge. The TX batteries in the MX-20's drained much quicker than usual, but lasted with only one change over.
The M-20's have a RX temp alarm which can be set to a minimum of -20°C (even through Graupner only rates their equipment to -10°C) so unfortunately the annoying low temp alarm was sounding most of the night. If your also flying with Telemetry...eg air module, don't expect much info from the LCD's as they had a response time of about 5-6 seconds.

As for the S800's performance...it was flawless. From memory it was in the air for a total of about 1hr 20min actual flight time (9 battery sets) and to a max altitude of 60m. However I did notice the props got very ridged, so i wouldn't recommend fast or tight aerial manoeuvres where it would heavily strain the prop and could cause a snap.

But again...this was an extreme situation and i probably woulnt fly in such subzero temps again mainly because of the physical un comfort but most of our flying days this winter have been at an average of -10°C.

I have been in so cal flying near big bear, and all throughout riverside, over police, crowds...and my moms church held the funeral of officer that lost his life.

anyways, I have donated footage to a few agencies, and its not long before every agency will be operating a rc multi/cam

Thanks for all your comments UAV.Pilot!

I agree with you on many of the points that you brought up and am very intrigued about this UAV Flight School that you have started up. Sounds like a fantastic concept!
I guess I can be thankful to be outside the US where the legislation is not as strict on these matters, but saying this its no excuse to forget how dangerous these aircrafts are.
I would also like to add on to your points, you will notice that most of the crowd shots are in-fact 'flying' over the crowd rather than just hovering still. In these situations i think its always important to have predefined safe zones and a flight path from A to B before takeoff. Good planning before the shot will ensure that the least amount of time is spent over people or property.
Of course as you mentioned...practice, practice, practice and really get comfortable and confident with flying before trying anything around people or property.

As with yourself, my S800 is close to perfection but this has been after many many hours of frustration, testing and trial and error...so keep at it guys and don't loose faith!!

Over the years I have helped hundreds of pilots achieve a higher level of control with their RC aircraft.
I could write a book of my adventures of flying RC/UAV across the world in places, impossible for 99.99% of most, a handful of us were trained by the Best. Anyways

Yes flying over a canyon, or water, or people, its all the same, with one exception people can get hurt, its real and it happens. You must scout the location first, make a flight plan with all of your staff, plan it!, then practice it if possible, |"winging it" is possible but thats where it could bit you. and not cool!
If you know your flight path before hand, if and when something does go wrong you immediately go into emergency mode and fly the craft away from persons and or property. It does become natural and I personally have been professionally flying over cities for some 7+ Years, even have 4 dead sticks under my belt at an altitude of 5000'+ manually controlling the craft and flying it to the very small runway. Someday I might upload it if I feel I would not get in trouble.

I am not much for a debate, but in the interest of progress, I ADVOCATE using all of your tools to do a proper, Safe Operation of your craft every flight, its not a hobby when your near ppl,prpty. Don't watch someones video and say I can do that, you must earn each good shot you can get, trust me when I say, there are no shortcuts, but having reliable equipment is the first thing that matters...And

For a long time I did not trust this Copter, seeing everything that has unfolded has most people that remotely went through problems, very cautious, with good reason!
I share my thoughts, not that they matter, but I hope it helps people move forward with their copters, or decisions when to fly or not.

Everything has limits, including pilots, pushing them in private is one thing, pushing them in public is something that should not be done, its called showing off. It will bit you! Ask me know I know..

As for the comments of Spreading Wings....Spreading Legs...who ever you are you owe me a New MAC!!! I shot milk through my nose and onto the keyboard!!!

You said what a lot of people were thinking, but didn't have the guts to say it out loud..
Whoever thought of the name must of had a night out in Bangkok Thailand...something else i tell you...lol